Winemaker's Notes:

Aromas of pear and honeysuckle perfume the bouquet. This is a beautifully balanced champagne with a long, expressive finish.

Critical Acclaim:

Refined and creamy, with delicate acidity that finds fine balance with the layers of poached apple and pear, lemon cake, ground ginger, smoke and almond cream flavors. Very elegant. Drink now through 2020. 28,000 cases made.

92 Points

Wine Spectator

The NV Brut Excellence is a terrific effort at this level. A fragrant, open bouquet leads to deep, layered core of fruit. The wine shows gorgeous complexity, nuance and a multi-dimensional personality that is simply compelling. The Brut Excellence is 45% Pinot Noir, 13% Pinot Meunier and 42% Chardonnay. The significant presence of red grapes gives the wine much of its breadth and richness on the palate. This is Lot # L745-1422, disgorged 1st week of December, 2008. Anticipated maturity: 2009-2014.

90 Points

The Wine Advocate

Tense and crisp, this is a balanced food-friendly Champagne. It is dry, and its apple- and citrus-like acidity has rounded out with some bottle age. The acidity cuts right through to give the wine a great lift of freshness on the finish.

90 Points

Wine Enthusiast

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Learn More About the Winery

Founded in Aÿ in 1584 by Pierre Gosset, Gosset is the oldest wine house in Champagne. It also remains one of the most prestigious, considered by many collectors and connoisseurs as the world’s preeminent name in luxury champagne. In 2009, this storied winemaker celebrated a landmark 425-year anniversary.

Gosset's reputation for excellence starts on the vines. Its champagnes are composed almost entirely of grapes from Premier Cru and Grand Cru vineyards. Unlike most champagne producers, this illustrious wine house purposely avoids malolactic fermentation and always performs riddling and disgorging of prestige cuvées and large-format bottles by hand. Gosset champagnes are made with infinite care and kept in dark cellars for at least three years – and up to five for vintage and prestige cuvées – before release.

Gosset's inimitable style – powerful and full-bodied, of unrivaled richness and staying power – has changed little over the centuries. Once a favorite of the kings and queens of France, it is now a fixture on the wine lists of some of the most lauded restaurants in the world, recognized by expert sommeliers for its exceptional capacity to enhance a wide range of cuisine.

Gosset's legacy is today in the safekeeping of the Cointreau family, who also owns and manages the highly regarded Cognac Frapin. While other champagne houses are handing over the reigns to large corporations, the members of this family are personally involved in the winemaking practices that have, over 425 years, made Gosset the ultimate name in champagne. In 2009, the family announced the acquisition of a new property in the heart of Epernay, which, with space for up to 2.5 million bottles, will serve as an extension to its production facilities in Aÿ.

Learn More About Non-Vintage

Non-Vintage
Most Champagne you encounter will be NV, or non-vintage. This is because the base wine is a blend of wine from
multiple vintages.
In producing non-vintage wines, Champagne houses strive to keep the taste consistent year by year, and non-vintage
wine provides
the winemakers flexibility in blending, ensuring a constant style each year. Non-vintage Champagne is released when
it is ready,
so drink within a year or two after you purchase or receive a bottle. That said, there are some stars of non-vintage
that are as
good as many vintage bottlings and can last a few more years. The higher priced non-vintage, or multiple vintages, like
Krug's Grand Cuvée and
Laurent Perrier's Grand Siecle
are prestige cuvées, or tète de cuvées. This means these are the top blends from the house, and of no less quality
than a
vintage Champagne. Krug makes no entry level
Champagne, so everything you see from them is a prestige cuvée.

The difference in styles can be categorized by body. Here's a quick cheat sheet for some of our most popular
non-vintage Champagne.

Lighter-bodied houses

Deutz

Nicolas Feuillatte

Laurent-Perrier

Perrier-Jouet

Pommery

Tattinger

Medium-bodied houses

Delamotte

Gosset

Moët & Chandon

Mumm

Piper-Heidsieck

Pol Roger

Fuller-bodied houses

Bollinger

Henriot

Krug

Louis Roederer

Veuve Clicquot

Sparkling wines from other regions that are made in the traditional method will also differentiate their
non-vintage and vintage bottlings, just as Champagne. Non-vintage sparkling wine from most wineries will often
have a house style, just as the Champagne houses.

Learn More About Champagne, France

Champagne is both a region and a method. The wines come from the northernmost vineyards in France and the name conjures an image like no other can. An 18th Century Benedictine monk named Dom Perignon is said to be the first to blend both varietals and vintages, making good wines not only great, but also special and unique to their winemaker. Today, nearly 75% of Champagne produced is non-vintage and made up by a blend of several years' harvests.

All Champagnes must be made by a strictly controlled process called "Méthode Champenoise." The grapes are pressed and fermented for the first time. The blending phase follows and the wine is bottled and temporarily capped. Then comes the second fermentation, a blend of sugar and yeast is added and, this time, the carbon dioxide is kept inside the bottle. This process leaves a great deal of sediment that is extracted through a process of "racking" or "riddling." The bottles are progressively turned upside down until all the sediment is collected in the neck. The necks are then frozen and the sediment is "disgorged." After this phase, the winemaker may decide to add sugar to sweeten the wine. Finally the wine is corked. Some wines move through this process in a couple of months, while others are aged after the riddling phase to build greater complexity and depth.

Champagnes range from dry, "Brut," to slightly sweet, "Demi-Sec." Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes are used in Champagne blends, but "Blancs de Noirs" is made entirely of Pinot Noir and "Blancs de Blanc" is made from only Chardonnay grapes. The high acidity achieved by the northern location is crucial to the balance and structure of these wines.

Not every year is a "vintage" declared. In years when it is not, the wines are blended with the produce from other years to create the non-vintage blend, the house style that remains constant from year to year. But in a great vintage year, champagne houses will bottle by itself the unblended year's produce, and use other portions as "reserve" wines to supplement and enrich the non-vintage blend. A vintage champagne can age quite gracefully, and gain complexity just like any other great still wine.

Mild cheeses like gruyere and shellfish pair nicely with Champagne. Also, oysters and Champagne is a popular combination. A full-flavored vintage Champagne can go with almost any meal.